Homestay? What can you plant? The grape-like bonsai Jaboticaba.

Phot by Adamantiaf in Wikipedia article on Jaboticaba.

Here's the latest fruit to try and buy and grow. Jaboticaba. (Also sometimes spelled Jabuticaba.)
It looks like a grape and grows on the trunks of trees.

You can buy online seeds to plant, hopefully growing a bonsai tree. Worldwide shopping and they say free worldwide shipping.

Brazil
The plants are common in Brazil where you can buy the fruit.(Also other South American countries.) Each fruit has a sour (astringent) skin which you spit out, and a sweet white or pink juicy centre like a grape and one to four seeds.

The fruit soon ferments. You can use the fruit for james and jellies and 'wine' or rather a strongly alcoholic spirit.

Something to look for on your next trip to South America. Meanwhile, you can grow it at home.

Useful Websites
https://bestseedsonline.com/100-pcs-delicious-fruit-plant-bonsai-tree-family-jabuticaba-novel-brazilian-grape/?

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and phtographer, author and speaker. Member of several toastmasters international speaking clubs, one permanently online, Singapore Online International, also online during Covid-19, three Singapore clubs and one in the UK, Harrovians.
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Romanian Wine Tasting In Restaurants In Bucharest

Problem
Where can I try Romanian wines?

Answers
1 Starting in Bucharest, at any restaurant. The waiter or wine waiter will be delighted to help you.

2 Drive north of Bucharest for an hour or two and you will come to a wine route signposted on the roads around Dealu Mare. (Vineyard described in next post.)

Stories
1 Our first Romanian drink was when we arrived in the capital, Bucharest, on Thursday night in June 2017 and checked into our hotel, the Scala Boutique Hotel. Our welcome drink was highly alcoholic, a spirit. The hotel's restaurant was closed because of lack of staff. I knew that if I drank spirits I would not be able to walk to the nearby old town for dinner.

My free drink was dark red. Strong stuff. So I added water.

Why not? You add water to whisky because it is too strong to drink neat, or even on the rocks, on melting ice.

Welcome drink at the Scala Boutique Hotel. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

2 Bucharest Old Town - Crama Damneasca Restaurant

C r a m a means winery. The restaurant name contained the word Crama, winery.  The same word, Crama, was on the label of the bottle of wine we ordered.

Look at the label below. We sat over our dinner deciphering it. Add the letter u to the end of the word and it is like of.  So Basilescu would be of Basil? More likely the winery of the basilisc or dome. 

The grape is Feteasca alba. Alba means white. 2015 was the year it was bottled. So it is a two year old wine in 2017, a young wine, likely to be sharp as well as dry. 

Vin is wine, like the French word vin, as in the French vin de table, table wine, or vin o r d i n a i r e meaning ordinary wine. 

Alba means white. So it is a white grape. 

Sec is dry. Cu like a short form of the Latin word cum means with. 

DOC for Denumire de Origine Controlata, translates the English Denomination (name) of origin controlled. That is like a trademark on the name. 

3 La Vinuri

Opposite the opera house was newly opened tapas and Wine tasting Bar, La Vinuri. Not cheap, though it might be good value.

4 Artisan wine, on the menus of restaurants, is from a winery we visited the next day.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Mescal/Mezcal - Mexican drink with agave worm - weird Xmas present?

Who would want to drink wine with worms in it? The Chinese and the Mexicans.

Chinese
In a Chinese store in Chinatown in Singapore I saw giant bottles of alcohol contained pickled worms. Yuk. It quite put me off purchasing a c h e o n g sam. (Spell check wants to select the similar and more usual word, it thinks, chewing.) Chewing on a worm?

Mexican Mescal
A member of my family is taking an exam organised by WSET for wines and spirits. Revision for the theory and tasting entailed buying and tasting small quantities of various sprits including Mexican Mescal. Even the tiny size contains a tiny worm.

We had a debate in which I was assured, "It is not a real worm. Not the sort that live underground. It's the l a r v a e of a moth."

I was not reassured. As far as I'm concerned, if it looks like a worm (to parody the famous saying about a duck from Hitchhiker's Guide ..) it is a worm.

After the tasting the worm was disposed of.

So I do not have a photo. Just as well. My more squeamish readers might be put off. However, if you want to see or buy Mescal, look for it in Mexico or from a website such as Drinksupermarket.co.uk

In London before Xmas the big stores in Central London such as Harrods and Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason often stock novelty foods as gifts, sometimes in sets of two or three, sometimes as individual items, such as chocolate covered this and that. If you want to make up a set of foods or drinks for a friend who likes that sort of thing, or for amusement, or for friends from China or Mexico who might be familiar with these drinks and regard them not as a novelty but as a treat, here is an idea for your Xmas list.

Not all Mezcal contains the worm. So be sure to order it with, or, if you prefer, without.

If you like it, go to Mexico during the recently introduced festival in July.
 "Para todo mal, mezcal, y para todo bien, también." ("For every ill, Mezcal, and for every good as well.").

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mezcal

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, speaker and author.